Moving-picture machine.



A. F. GALL N. A. CURTISS.

MOVING PICTURE MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB- 24, 1914- l i 'n Patented Oct. 9, 1917.

" fr ATToR/vfys UNITED STATES PATENT oEEroE.

ADOLPH F. GALL AND NATHAN A. CURTISS, OF WEST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGN- ORS TO NEW JERSEY PATENT COMPANY, F WEST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, A COR- PORATION NEW JERSEY.

MOVING-PICTURE MACHINE.

speeieation of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 9, 1917.

Application led February 24, 1914. Serial No. 820,495.

new and useful Improvements in' Movingside in the provision, in a motion picture` Picture Machines, of which the following is a description.

Our invention relates to moving picture machines, and more particularly to the means for maintaining a film in a fiat and even condition while being fed past exposure position in such a machine.A

rIhe principal objects of our invention remachine, of an improved arrangement and construction of the lm gate and improved meansfor opening and closing the film' gate, and for locking the latter in closed position.

Another object of our invention is toprovide improved film engaging and uiding means, whereby the pressure on the lm adjacent the projection aperture of a motion picture machine can be readily and accu-'- rately regulated, so that the lilm will be engaged with just suicient'force to prevent wrinkling or buckling thereof, without substantially hindering or retarding its movement through the machine to bring the pictures successively into registration with the projection aperture.

U Other objects and features/ of our invention consist in the combinations of elements and details of construction hereinafter morefully described and claimed. For 'a clearer lunderstanding of our invention, attention is directed to the drawing accompanying and forming a part of this specification, and in which- `Flgure 1 is a side elevational view, partly 1n section, of a portion of a moving picture machine embodying our invention, the plane of section being indicated by line 1-1 of F1g 2, with the film gate shown in closed Aposition Fig. 2 is a sectional view thereof on the .line on Fig. 1, the film being omitted 1n thls vlew;

. designated by the same reference characters throughout the several views.

Referring now to'the drawing, reference character l indicates a portion of the main frame of a moving picture machine, one side of which frame is provided with a pair of spaced projections 2 extending outwardly therefrom substantially at right v angles thereto. A plate 3 provided with the usual projection aperture 3 is removably mounted on the projections 2 in anys'u'itable manner, but preferablyby means of bolts 4 and'nuts 5, the bolts being rigidly secured at one end to the plate and passing through the projections 2, and the nuts 5 being threaded on the other end of the bolts, as clearly shown in Fig. 1.

Secured t0 the opposite vertical edges of the plate 3 are wearing strips 6, againstand the guide bars are secured to the frame by the screws 9, the strips 6 being provided with open-ended recesses or slots 10 receiv ing the Shanks of the screws, whereby when the latter are loosened the strips may be readily removed and replaced if they become worn. The guide bars 8, as shown in Fig. 4 are secured to the strips 6 in such a Way that the latter are exposed between the inner edges of the guide bars and form therewith a channel of substantially the same width as the lm 7 which moves between the guide bars 8 in contact with the exposed portions of the strips 6. As will appear from an inspection o f Figs. 1 and 3,

the upper ends 11 of the strips 6 are curved away from the path of the film 7 to prevent the latter from contacting andthereby being scratched or otherwise marred bythe upper edge thereof.

Reference character 12 represents the film gate or door which' is slidably mounted on a pair of parallel horizontal rods 13 for movement toward and away from the aperture plate 3, as by means of bearings 14 which slidably engage these rods and are secured to one side of the gate, being preferably formed integrally therewith.. Rods 13 are ixedly mounted in the frame 1. and eX- tend substantially at right angles to the aperture plate 3 whereby the iilm gate will always be substantially parallel to the aperture plate. The film gate 12 is provided with the usual large opening 15 registering with the exposure aperture 3. face of the lm gate is provided at each side with a pair of vertically alined recessed lugs 16 in the recesse.: of which are loosely mounted spring-pressed presser bars 17 The lugs 16 at the opposite sides of the film gate are so located and spaced that, when the gate is closed, the presser bars 17 are' adapted to engage the outer edge portions of the film 7 between theguide bars 8, and

press such portions flatly against the wearlng strips 6, as shown in Fig. 4, whereby the film will be maintained in a flat even condition as it passes the aperture plate 3. The bars 17 are engaged by transversely extending spring strips 18 arranged near the top and bottom of the bars and preferably between the upper and lower lugs 16, which Y which pass looselythrough the film springs constantly tend to force the bars away from the gate 12. The strips 18 are engaged substantially at thevmiddle thereof by screws 19 mounted in the gate 12 and by adjusting these screws the bars 17 can be caused to exert a greater or less pressure on the film when the gate is closed. The bars 17 are prevented from moving entirely out of. engagement with the recessed lugs 16 when the film. gate 12 is moved to or is in open position by means of headed bolts 20 gate and are threaded into the bars 17.

To slide the gate 12 on rods 13 into either 'closed -or open position we employ a lever 21 having a slot 22 which engages a bolt 23V secured to the gate. This lever is pivotally mounted near lts upper end on a stud 24 secured to the frame 1 and beyond this stud 1s connected by means of a link 25 to one armof a beILcrank lever 26, to the other` arm of which is secured a handle 27. The l1nk 25 is pivotally connected both to the bell crank lever 26 andrto the lever 21, and the bell crank lever is pivotally mounted on a stud 28 secured to the frame 1. By pulling down on the handle 27 the gate 12 is moved away from the aperture plate 3 to The front @new and by means of which the latter is pivot-' ally mounted on a stud 31 secured to the frame 1, whereby the upward movement of the handle is limited. The bell-crank lever 26 and the link 25, pivotally connected thereto and to the lever 21, form a togglejoint and as thehandle 27 is moved upwardly to close the film gate, the pivotal Vconnection between the right hand end of the link 25 and the bell-crank lever 26 will be moved above the line joining the axes of the stud 28 and the pivotal connection between the lever 21 and link 25, and the toggle-joint will lock the film gate and the parts connected therewith in the position shown in Fig. 1. The toggle-joint acts to both 'lock the film gate 12 in closed or film engaging position and to carry the weight of the handle 27 so'that after the handle is moved up into engagement with the hub 29 of the arm 30, as shown in Fig. 1, it may fall back slightly out of contact with this hub, but stillv be kept by the toggle-joint in its upper position. s

Reference character 31 represents one of the lfilm-operating sprockets carried by a 3 shaft or spindle 32 mounted in the frame 1 and which is preferably constructed and connected to its spindle as disclosed in an application of Adolph F. Gall, Serial No. 814,226, filed January 24, 1914, and entitled Moving picture machines whereby a bight or loop may bereadily formed in the film between the sprocket and the aperture plate 3, and whereby such loop may bevreadilyvre- The arm 30 is i end guide rollers 37, adapted when the gate -is closed to coperate with the upper roller 34 and hold the film against the latter. The arm 36 is acted upon by a sprin 38 constantly tending to force the arm an its rollers 36 forwardly toward the position shown in Fig. 3. The arm 36 is provided at its lower end with a projection 39 adapted to coperate with the upper end of gate 12 guide quickly and easily slipped edgewise or sidewise into operative position `inthe machine. The necessity of threading the lm through the machine which is slow and tedious is thus obviated.

From the construction as above described, the mode of operation and utility of our invention will be readily perceived. VVhen it is desired to operate thev machine to exhibit moving pictures, the handle 27 is pulled down to open the gate 12 and the arms carrying the rollers coperating with the filmfeeding sprockets, such as 3l, are moved y away from the latter and the front end portion of the. film is then inserted edgewise into operative position as above described,

yin contact'with the aperture plate 3 and guide rollers 34 and in engagement with the teeth of the film feeding sprockets. The arms carrying the rollers. cooperating with the film-feeding sprockets are now moved into cooperating relation with the latter to maintain the film in operative engagement therewith and the handle 27 is moved upwardly to the position shown in Fig. l to close the gate 1,2.and lock the same in closed position as hereinbefore described. When the film gate is closed the presser bars 17 carried thereby are brought into engagement with the edge portions of the film and press the same against the wearing strips 6 with sufiicient firmness to prevent Wrinlrling or buckling of the film. The pressure of the bars 1.7 on the film is not, however, so great as to substantially interfere with the feeding movement thereof across the aperture plate 3. The rollers 37 carried by the spring pressed arm 36 on the rate 12 now hold the film in engagement with the upper roller 34 and prevent the film from flapping at the upper end of the aperture plate. As stated above the pressure of the v springs 18 on the bars 17 can be varied by the screws 19, and access to theiilm adjacent the plate 3 can be had at any time pulling the handle 25 downwardly and moving the gate 12 to open position as shown in Fig. 3. All of the parts of the device are easily accessible and in case of wear or accident they can readily be repaired or replaced.

We desire the above description and accompanying drawings to be understood as being illustrative only as they disclose but a preferred embodiment of our invention, and many changes in the shape, size and arrangement of the parts comprising such embodiment, may be made without any departure from the spirit of our invention and the scope of the appended claims.

Having now described our invention what we claim and desire to protect by United States Letters Patent is as follows:

1. inra moving picture machine, a mov- 'ably mounted film gate, and unitary means operable by a single manipulation to positively .move said gate to either open or closed position and to lock the same in one of such positions, substantially as described.

2. ln a moving picture machine, a film gate, and unitary means operable by a single manipulation to either open or close said gate and toV positively loclrl the same in closed position, substantially as described.

3. In a moving picture machine, a film gate, and means including a toggle joint for opening and closing` said gate and for locking the same in closed position, substantially asdescribed.

2i. ln a moving picture machine, a movably mounted film gate, and means including a toggle joint for moving said gate to open and closed position and for locking the gate in one of such positions, substantially as described.

5. lin a moving picture machine, a plate having a projection aperture, wearing strips removably secured to said plate on each side of said aperture, and guide strips removably secured to said plate over the wearing strips and exposing portions of said wearing strips between them, whereby a channel is formed through which a film can be moved with its longitudinal edge portions in contact with the wearing strips, substantially as described.-

6. ln a moving picture machine having an aperture plate, the combination of movably mounted means for pressing the film fiatly against said plate, and unitary means operable by a single manipulation to actuate said movably mounted means and to automatically and positively lock the same in film-pressing postion, substantially as described.

7. In a moving picture machine having an aperture plate, a film gate having means to engage the longitudinal edge portions of' the lm and press the same against said plate, rods on which said gate is slidably mounted, whereby the latter can be moved toward and from the film, and manually operable means including a toggle joint for opersntinfn the gate and for locking the gate in nlm-pressing postion, substantially as described.

8. l'n a moving picture machine having an aperture plate, the combination ,of a device ics for pressing a ilm flat against said plate? ing aioggle joint for operating said gate means for positively moving said device and lookin@F the same in a. predetermined both tovmid and from the zlin, end meslm position. siillstantially as described. nism comprising :in essential pas@ o seid This speeication signed and witnessed 5 means for automatically locking said dethis 20th dayof Febr'rary, 1914.

vice against the film when moved init@ en- ADOLPH F. GALL. gagement therewith, substantially as de- NATHAN A. CURTISS. scribed., .Witnesses 9. ln i moving picture machine7 a Inov- WILLLAM A. HARDY.

10 ably mounted lilmgate, and ineens conipi'is- MARY J. LAIDLAW. 

